Do science and faith comfortably coexist?

Science and Religion ask how and why the world began, and it is widely assumed that their answers conflict with each other.

AC Grayling, the popular philosopher and author, agrees, and he debates scientists and historians who argue that science and faith have often been partners.

Rachael chairs a panel at the World Science Festival in Brisbane with Grayling and astronomer, Ken Freeman, cognitive scientist Peter Bruza, historian of religion and science, Tom Aechtner, and lecturer in Islam and science, Zuleyha Keskin.

Guests

Professor AC Grayling

Master of the New College of the Humanities, London and author of more than 30 books on philosophy, biography, history of ideas and essays, he is Vice President of the British Humanist Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Professor Ken Freeman

Duffield Professor of Astronomy at the Australian National University in Canberra, he co-founded the new field of Galactic Archaeology and in 2012 he won the Prime Minister's prize for Science, the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society in 2013 and the international Gruber Prize for Cosmology in 2014. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Dr Zuleyha Keskin

Melbourne based Course Director at the Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, Charles Sturt University, Zuleyha received her Ph.D. from the School of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University, and is a senior lecturer in Islamic spirituality and contemporary Islamic studies, and a Director at Islamic Sciences and Research Academy.

Dr Thomas Aechtner

Lecturer in Religion and Science at the University of Queensland's School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry. He received his doctorate at the University of Oxford and an MA in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, and a BSc in biological sciences from the University of Alberta.

Professor Peter Bruza

Professor of Science and Engineering at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, he co-authored Quantum Models of Cognition and Decision (CUP 2012) which was nominated for the 2017 Grawemeyer Award in psychology. Peter is a Zen monk and senior teacher in the Open Way Zen School, and has been practicing Zen for 25 years and is a disciple of Soto Zen master Hogen Yamahata of Chogen-ji temple, Japan.